For as long as people have been fighting one another, it’s been self-evident that he who can avoid getting hit has the best chance of coming out of the fight alive, if not victorious. Warfare has come a long way from hunter-gatherers dodging atlatl-thrown spears, but this ironclad rule of combat remains. Body armor and camouflage are both virtually ubiquitous, but exposure-reduction technologies and techniques have several times been tried, as well. The Krummlauf is perhaps one of the most famous ones, that being a curved attachment for StG-44 assault rifles to allow firing around corners and from within vehicles, while the more modern CornerShot is another. Ian and Karl with InRange takes a look at another such product that I had not heard of, the HideSight, which consists of a set of mirrors allowing aiming without requiring the shooter’s head to be directly behind the sights. Take a look at the video below:

HideSight is a very well-though-out piece of equipment, but it still faces some challenges before acceptance. One that comes to my mind is the question of how infantry equipped with these devices would be trained to use them. Would the HideSights be stored in pouches most of the time, and then attached at the user’s discretion, or when the squad leader gives the order? What situations are the ones where something like the HideSight would give the rifleman an advantage, versus being a detriment? These are the kinds of questions that can be answered, but only with testing and experience, and those take time.

Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. In addition to contributing to The Firearm Blog, he runs 196,800 Revolutions Per Minute, a blog devoted to modern small arms design and theory. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.

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mechamaster

Well… Train infantry to utilize / attach them in urban environment with QD-system.
This equipment is shine in that combat scenario. But in muddy, sandy, rainforest, snowy combat zone, it has disadvantage such fogging / dirty lens.
And it’s look hard to be utilized with iron sight in emergency situation.

If they are dirty or fogged, they take it off and they were no worse off than they were before.

MPWS

Smart and simple, no doubt. One remaining question though: if shooter does not actually shoulder he gun, how does it affect accuracy? Hand exposure is a moot point but is still there too.

tts

With irons its probably tough to use at best. But Ian and Carl used a red dot and that made all the difference.

gunsandrockets

Well to go back to the WWI trench warfare examples, accuracy should be pretty good by resting the rifle forend on the top of a sandbag lining the trench. That’s where this gizmo would really shine, fighting defensively from prepared positions.

kyle893

I wouldn’t imagine accuracy being the issue. Twisting around the corner with your hands in kind of an awkward position would make fast reaction timing and follow up shots kind of impossible. If a side folding stock held the pistol grip along with this device behind the red dot, then it could work better. Like folding the stock, it would all go with it and wouldn’t be as long as that corner shot thing, in fact it would still be the same length. It would have to work on an FAL like layout though.

Major Tom

Personally if you need a doohickey to shoot around a corner that means whatever you’re facing is either a cut above your skill level or close enough that you can simply toss a grenade around the corner and flush them from their hole. Or both.

John

The French want a word with you.

A major requirement is that any new rifle be fully compatible with the Felin camera system.

Tom

The problem is that when fighting in urban/built up areas there are bound to be civilians/human shields so using a grenade might get you into a lot of trouble with the brass.

Major Tom

And that’s why we’ve been losing wars for the past 50 years. We care more about the lives of complete strangers than we do our own troops.

If the enemy is in a room and isn’t holding hostages, you have no reason NOT to grenade them.

Besides, who said the grenade had to be a good old fashioned pineapple? Toss in a flashbang or a smoke or a tear gas canister and you can achieve the same result of breaking them from firing position or otherwise circumventing the need for this kind of device.

Nicks87

We’ve been losing wars for the past 50 years? Is that why America is the only super power left in the world? Is that why we have the greatest, most technologically advanced military the world has ever seen? Is that why America is still the country with the most free and diverse population in recorded history? You need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid the politicians are selling.

Frig man

This isn’t Call Of Duty.

Seriously..”a cut above your skill level”

Dude, do you even war fight.

Major Tom

If the enemy is such a good marksman that you need such an esoteric device you better be facing off against Alfa group Spetsnaz or somebody else equally elite.

If the enemy is that good, you simply use your brain and either flank em or flush em out with grenades or do the latter followed by friendlies doing the former at the same time.

A simple mirror on a stick and a good set of brains makes these things wholly unnecessary. They’re a lot cheaper too.

How do you propose to do that if the enemy has spotted you and you’re under heavy suppressing fire, which is possible with any enemy because that’s how infantry tactics work?

steveday72

Hand grenades won’t help if the enemy is shooting out of windows/doorways at you’re position and you’re ducking behind a corner just trying to keep your ass alive. At a time like that you’d be praying for something like this.

That RSP-1 looks like a really great design. Does anyone have any experience using them?

Alexander

RSP-1 is elder model, now is RSP-2W and PKP-2S models of periscopic sights by BelOMO.
About some experience of using – it is still easy one tube red dot sight, light enough, cheap enough, enough comfortable, especially for a skilled shooter. By mounting it’s Picatinny version you need to be sure you have right bracket – it’s simple to mount and use it with AK rifles, but to use it with AR on comfortable way you need to put it little bit higher, so the periscopic part could rotate to any degree.
I like ,ore what it’s only one switching operation between regular shooting and shooting from the cover. Really easy to get used to it.
BelOMO also have special kind of folding stock for AK rifles, which can be fixed in 45 degrees position to hold the gun comfortably while shootimg periscopic sights.

Audie Bakerson

I see it having use in LE first, simply because sand can’t be good for those mirrors.

Hensley Beuron Garlington

Why the heck no one has just invented a camera site that floats in a liquid like a ball compass and holds zero when steady is beyond me. We have enough gyro and magnet technology that shouldn’t be too hard. That way I could even roll over on my side and back and the site picture will stay right side up. Just give me that and a HUD of some sort and some streamlined Tracking Point tech and we are good to go. Otherwise, I’m still going to be “semi blind firing” around the corners. I think the main problem is that in the time it takes most people to acquire a target in such an un-intuitive way, they can be out flanked or dealt with before they can be more of a threat. Be a LOT of training to get good and fast with such a system. Long distance is less of a problem, obviously, but room to room fighting, maybe not so much.